TABC wins High School Model Beis Din Competition hosted by Touro’s Lander College for Men.

(Courtesy of Touro) Imagine the following scenario: conjoined twins are born to a religious Jewish couple, who are told that they must surgically separate the two babies or both will die. And while the surgery will save one of the children, the act of separating them will effectively and immediately kill the other. As the God-fearing parents are faced with a devastating choice — save one baby by killing the other or let them both die rather than hastening the death of one child — they seek the counsel of one of the leading Torah scholars of their generation to determine the correct halacha.

Now imagine you are that Torah scholar. What would you say?

Unfortunately, this case is not hypothetical, as a Jewish couple in Lakewood were tragically faced with this very decision in 1977, and the Torah scholar in question was actually Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, z:l. However, last weekend students from eight yeshiva high schools in five states had the opportunity to consider the halacha from Rabbi Feinstein’s perspective at the annual Model Beit Din Competition, hosted by Touro’s Lander College for Men (LCM) at the Lander campus in Queens.

Originally launched in 2014 by Harav Yonason Sacks, shlita, esteemed rosh hayeshiva of the Beis Medrash L’Talmud, each year the Model Beis Din Competition invites teams to match wits with their contemporaries by arguing the Jewish legal ramifications of a complex halachic quandary. The cutting-edge tournament introduces a controversial dilemma, which requires students to delve into the facts of the case and study the halachic ramifications and mekoros (sources). or sources.

“The Model Beit Din is an exciting and creative way of demonstrating the dynamic nature of halacha — how the Torah can inform and confront moral and legal challenges in the most sophisticated way,” said Rabbi Sacks. “I was impressed with the caliber of the students’ presentations. They were creative and articulate and reflected a thorough knowledge of many mekoros, and I am confident that they found this to be a most enriching experience.”

This year each team had to argue both sides — that the parents should allow the doctors to perform the surgery on the twins, and that the doctors would be forbidden from doing anything that would directly lead to the death of another — and then defend their arguments to Rabbi Sacks and “judges” from the Beis Medrash L’Talmud faculty. Prior to the competition, the details of the case were provided to the high schools, and the participants spent several weeks reading sources, weighing the moral and ethical considerations, and reviewing halachic opinions.

Because the matter is subject to debate, the winners were chosen based on the quality of the presentations and their mastery of the different opinions and Talmudic sources, as well as on how well they supported their findings, according to Rabbi Aryeh Manheim, LCM’s director of admissions and the organizer of the competition.

This year’s victory belonged to the team from Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC), Teaneck, with Mesivta High of School of Greater Philadelphia placing second and Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh in third place. The other participating yeshivas were Ezra Academy, Queens; Rambam Mesivta, Inwood; Fasman Yeshiva High School, Skokie, Illinois; Margolin Hebrew Academy, Memphis.; and JEC, Elizabeth.

“The students really gained a lot and so did the coaches,” said Rabbi Howard Jachter, TABC rebbe who serves as dayan on the Beth Din of Elizabeth. “The boys were revved up, they put in hours of preparation and they look forward to the drisha vachakira with Lander rosh yeshiva Rabbi Sacks. This is a good, healthy competition that drives the students to learn. It’s a fantastic program and we are grateful to Lander for this first-class competition that brings out the best in our talmidim. Like the Gemara says, ‘kinas sofrim tarbeh chachma.’”

Before the Sunday competition began, the high school students and their rabbinic faculty coaches spent a Shabbaton at the Kew Gardens Hills campus, where they got to know members of the other teams, met current students, enjoyed a spirited Friday night tish, and experienced Shabbos at Lander College for Men. But when Shabbos went out, the competitors worked late into the night to finalize the two positions and hone their arguments.

“While competing with other outstanding young men from across the country, these students rose to the challenge and applied their learning and ingenuity to a challenging case study,” said Dr. Henry Abramson, dean ofLCM. “They and their rebbeim are to be congratulated.”